The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE

PC Software. Anything to do with PC Games & software!

Re: The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE

Postby OldAirmail » Sun Oct 06, 2013 12:29 pm

If you've been reading this, you know that I'm unhappy in many ways with REX Essential Plus Overdrive.

It takes way to much time to start up. The manual is 70 pages, and overly complicated for what most of us want to do. Although I'm pretty sure that a budding meteorologist would be ecstatic with the program.

That's not to say that it doesn't have some strong pluses though.

It took me a while, but I finally found some settings that make me quite happy.
Image

The ability to fine tune your flying environment is one of the best things about REX. Lets face it - no 2 parts of the world have the same water, clouds, sun, etc. What is perfect for Tahiti would look very weird to the inhabitants of the Sahara. And the denizens of Moscow would recognize the sky only vaguely.

If you want to be anal about it, you could make what, to you, would be the best sky for every part of the world and save each with whatever name you wanted.

As a W.A.G., I would say that you have, at the least, hundreds of thousands of possible combinations. It may even reach into the millions.


HOWEVER, during the time that it took to start the last time, I trimmed my fingernails. And had some time left over to sit and watch it load.


I'm not sure about this, (but I'm very tired of the wait, and don't intend to keep restarting it over and over) however after making some selections, REX, didn't save them unless I chose to click on "OK" when asked if I "want to fly now".
Image


It was time to start looking for a better solution.
User avatar
OldAirmail
Major
Major
 
Posts: 4814
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:06 pm
Location: Concrete, WA ICAO - 3W5

Re: The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE

Postby OldAirmail » Sun Oct 06, 2013 1:37 pm

There are other choices.

I first looked into Active Sky 2012. Many people give this a good recommendation.

One thing that turned me off of it was in the title itself - 2012. I mean, this is almost 2014! Who wants to buy something old. After all, they may put out a new version next month!

I did, however, watch the videos and read the reviews because many people do like it.

Had they provided a demo download, I would have checked it out more thoroughly. But I didn't find one so I looked elsewhere.



There were 2 companies that did provide demo downloads.


One was FS Global Real Weather.

The reviews that I read made it sound ok, so I downloaded the demo and gave it a try.

It starts off by asking you to pick an airport for the weather. After that, it loaded the weather quickly and off I went.

But when I wanted to load the weather from another airport, the selection was grayed out, unselectable. And THAT was the only weather I could get out of FS Global Real Weather no matter where in the world I went.
Image

Over all it didn't have a well finished feel to it.

Time to look elsewhere.



The next one that I found with a demo was OpusFSX Live Weather.

Somewhat like REX, this is a complicated bit of software. UNLIKE REX, it's easier to use.
Image

Another thing that I liked about it was that you could run it from within FSX.
Image

When you start it up, though, it adds itself to the menu ONLY SO LONG AS IT IS SHOWN IN THE TASK BAR. If you close the program out, which I did many times by mistake, it will no longer be in the "Add-ons". This is something that you can get used to, but it may take you by surprise at first.

An interesting thing is that when you exit FSX, OpusFSX will also exit automatically. This is no big deal, but I think that it's a nice touch.



No matter what one you chose, YOU WILL need to do some reading, and play with the software a little.
User avatar
OldAirmail
Major
Major
 
Posts: 4814
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:06 pm
Location: Concrete, WA ICAO - 3W5

Re: The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE

Postby OldAirmail » Sun Oct 06, 2013 5:26 pm

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Whether the weather

Image



WHAT A DIFFERANCE!





And the winner is ....

OpusFSX Live Weather

I'm not going to write a review, you can read a REALLY good review at Mutley's Hangar.

I'm just going to toss my experience & opinions into this.



Before I even start, let me thank the creators of FSX for building a flight simulator that is so flexible, that many years later it can still be improved upon.

When I started with FSX I had no clue if I would even be using it a month later. Over time I've added hardware to make flying more enjoyable.

And then I started buying add-on programs like Orbx FTX Global, and A2A's Accu-Feel v2 which have made it far better.

With OpusFSX Live Weather I find more and more of the complaints I've had with FSX have falling away. If it gets any more real I'll have to put up with a TSA guard standing in front of my computer! :D

So yes, a BIG thanks to the Microsoft ACES team. Well done. :clap:



About the weather

To get the weather info, FSX needs to get STANARDIZED information. But that standard information is limited in its description as to just what is out there in the sky.

FSX, and the weather add-on companies have to do their best in so far as guessing what's up in the sky.

They may be able to download info on how low or high the clouds are, and what the winds are like. But after that, its a matter of interpretation regarding what the cloud formations look like.



SOME interpretations are better than others.

The following are from FSX Lubbock, Texas. Preston Smith International Airport;

FSX
Image

REX
Image

OPUS
Image

The Opus sky more closely matches the local Lubbock, Texas sky.


One of the irritating things that REX and Opus got rid of was the limited range of heavy cloud cover from FSX. When you get high enough in FSX you can see the edges of that radius.
Image

Another FSX cloud problem are these strange square patterns;
Image

Image


Cloud cover like this are a thing of the past;
Image



This is a storm radar image of Louisville Kentucky area today at 8:40 am.
Image

And this is what that storm looked like to the FSX weather engine.
Image
And, yes. I did give FSX time to update.


While chasing big storms with OpusFSX I saw something that I've NEVER seen in FSX OR REX weather - a Cumulonimbus cloud with a 41,000 foot height!


The clouds may be better from REX, but I'd bet that the weather in FSX would look great even without them.

Flying high NEVER looked so good.

It used to be that the weather obscured what I wanted to see. NOW I WANT to see the weather as I fly!


AND before I forget it - LOAD TIME IS ABOUT SIX SECONDS! :dance:

BELIEVE ME! OpusFSX Live Weather is well worth the money.
User avatar
OldAirmail
Major
Major
 
Posts: 4814
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:06 pm
Location: Concrete, WA ICAO - 3W5

Re: The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE

Postby OldAirmail » Sat Oct 12, 2013 11:35 pm

People who know, say that the cloud textures from REX are the best. I don't want to keep uninstalling & re-installing large programs, so I won't argue the point.

And while that may be true, I was never able to get massive clouds like these from REX.


The skies are so much better looking now, that I WANT them to be cloudy!

Look at the size of that cloud in the background. My plane is about 20,000 23,000 feet.
Image


No more cotton puffballs!
Image


Now the clouds have volume and mass. And yet, when you get close enough you can almost feel the moisture.
Image
I'm even starting to enjoy flying modern jet powered passenger aircraft!
User avatar
OldAirmail
Major
Major
 
Posts: 4814
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:06 pm
Location: Concrete, WA ICAO - 3W5

Re: The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE

Postby OldAirmail » Sun Oct 20, 2013 2:54 pm

I love this weather!

Thanks to FTX Global, OpusFSX, and Accu-Feel I'm flying much more than before.



Probably for a year or more, I flew with clear weather. I wanted to see where I was, and I needed to see where I was going.

I know what the area around me looks like from the air and the FSX scenery wasn't it. FTX Global may not have it right either, but it does look much better.


I've now gotten much better on the aircraft instruments, so flying at night or in heavy weather isn't a problem.

I think that you can say that I've grown up. I can take off the training wheels.

As I said - thanks to FTX Global, OpusFSX, and Accu-Feel, I would not go back to the old days.



This is an example of what I fly through now. It's just to good to give up.

One of those mountains in the background is Mount Marcy, NY. If you have the standard FSX running on your system compare that with this.
Image
User avatar
OldAirmail
Major
Major
 
Posts: 4814
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:06 pm
Location: Concrete, WA ICAO - 3W5

Re: The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE

Postby litterboxgolfer » Sun Oct 20, 2013 5:58 pm

I actually made a video on this on YouTube, and I think it was inspired by the other poor man's sim pit fourm post! I made a video showcasing a bunch of great freeware that i had found after scouring the internet for a while, and I know your frustraitions so maybe this link may help. The description of the video shows chapters of what i showcased.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkX_EjPV5YA
litterboxgolfer
Ground hog
Ground hog
 
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2013 5:50 pm

Re: The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE

Postby litterboxgolfer » Sun Oct 20, 2013 6:03 pm

OldAirmail wrote:I thinks that things are simpler with hardware. You can actually see pictures of the hardware, and decide whether you like it or not. Good price? Bad price? Simply read all the reviews and make your choice.

But looking for the best software for you needs can be an almost impossible task. What one person likes, the other hates. What works for the newest/fastest game machine may drive another persons machine into the ground.

Doing a search for the "best" FSX something or the other isn't really going to be useful.

And spending my time and money on all the different flight sim software just isn't going to happen.

What I'm hoping for are comments from others on what worked for them and why. OR what didn't work for them and why.

Where I can, I'll throw my little bit of knowledge in and hope that it'll help someone else.

Some of the things that I've tried were truly horrible. But it's entirely possible the I simply didn't know what I was doing (there's no doubt about that :lol: ). But some things that I've tried were great.

So, off to the races.


I actually made a video on this on YouTube, and I think it was inspired by the other poor man's sim pit fourm post! I made a video showcasing a bunch of great freeware that i had found after scouring the internet for a while, and I know your frustraitions so maybe this link may help. The description of the video shows chapters of what i showcased.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkX_EjPV5YA
litterboxgolfer
Ground hog
Ground hog
 
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Oct 20, 2013 5:50 pm

Re: The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE

Postby OldAirmail » Sat Oct 26, 2013 7:22 pm

House cleaning time


Hidden USB Problems

One of the problems that can crop up has to do with the USB devices that we connect to our computers.

For the most part, you plug a new USB device in and the software automatically loads. Great!

Sometimes you have to load the drivers BEFORE you plug your device in.

Every now and then a USB device driver is installed again just because you plugged the device into a different USB port!

And sometimes you're given a chance/choice of directing your computer to the driver file, and install the wrong one.

Time passes and you replace your USB device with a newer device that has a newer driver.

You move your drive to a new computer, and windows updates the drivers.



One day you're wondering why your blinkin USB device isn't working. You go to device manager and delete it. But after plugging it in again it still isn't working!

Or you've recently installed some software and that blinkin USB device isn't working!


Windows is great about installing those drivers, but not so good about removing them. In fact, I don't think that Windows does anything but install the driver and wait for the next time that you plug it in.



PRESENTING - USBDeview v2.27

Image

USBDeview v2.27 will list EVERY USB device that has EVER been plugged into your computer.

Remember that dinky little plastic camera that your kid plugged into your computer 6 years ago? The one that broke 2 days later?

The USB driver is still listed, and loaded, in your computer.


USBDeview will let you delete all of the junk.

You don't think that you have that much junk in your computer? Me neither.

Until I ran USBDeview.

It seem that I do have a little bit of trash to clean out though. LIKE 384 ITEMS!!!!!

I have 30 keyboards listed! And that's only a quick glance!



If you're not sure about a particular USB device listing, double click on its line listing to bring up this window.
Image


If it doesn't tell you who it belongs to in the "Device Description", note the "VendorID:"
Image

Now go to The USB ID Repository and search for that "VendorID:, 16d0 in this case. From there you may find more info.

That may not answer all of your questions, but it should help you to clear up many orphaned USB drivers.



Remember, if you by delete something that you do still use, it will probably reinstall the next time that you plug it in. The other side of that coin is that if a USB device stops working - unplug, and re-plug it.



There are a few things to keep in mind as you choose those items for deleating.
* Don't delete any computer USB drivers - Check that "VendorID", and if unsure DON'T uninstall the device!"
* If you have Windows 7 or 8 do a System Backup.
* If still in doubt do a computer backup.
* Don't delete any legacy devices (that are working) if you don't have the disk.[/b]



NOTE - (for Windows 7 or 8 ) To actually delete anything you have to run the program as Administrator.
User avatar
OldAirmail
Major
Major
 
Posts: 4814
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:06 pm
Location: Concrete, WA ICAO - 3W5

Re: The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE

Postby OldAirmail » Sat Oct 26, 2013 8:09 pm

NOTICE ON THE ABOVEImage

If you delete your keyboard you will not be able to logon to your computer!

I'm now down to 260 USB devices, and I'll probably quit soon. It's getting to hard to tell the important ones from the old, useless USB drivers.
User avatar
OldAirmail
Major
Major
 
Posts: 4814
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:06 pm
Location: Concrete, WA ICAO - 3W5

Re: The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE

Postby OldAirmail » Fri Nov 01, 2013 6:00 pm

FASTER
FASTER
FASTER
FASTER
FASTER
FASTER
FASTER
FASTER



Earlier in The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE I wrote about my solution to speed up a computer system: I bought a 256GB SSD (Solid State Drive), and a fast 1TB hard drive with a big cache.

I transferred a lot of bulky stuff from my old hard drive to the 1TB drive. I then cloned my old drive to the new SSD.

The old hard drive became a backup drive. Although with all of the stuff that I've added lately, I'll soon need a bigger drive to back up my files.



If you've read the post on Junction Link Magic, you now know how to easily (and for free) move files off a mid sized SSD (or your old drive for that matter) onto a second drive.

My SSD still has about 100GB of free space. The main reason for keeping that much space free, is to install everything to the "C" drive before using Junction Link Magic to move it to a second hard drive.



There have been absolutely no problems and no noticeable slowdowns when data is read off the second drive.

I believe that my inability to notice any slow down is due to the fact that Windows can access the two drives at the same time.

That, and the fact that the fast hard drive has 64MB of cache built into it makes the whole computer work as fast as it can. Who knows? with a lot of tinkering I could probably speed that part of it up by one or two percent.

For me, this has been the lowest cost way of getting a fast drive setup.



A very fast hard drive EVEN CHEAPER!

But now, there's another way to make your standard drive much faster for far less.

For about $60 you can buy the SanDisk Desktop Caching SSD - ReadyCache 32 GB from Amazon or Newegg. There is also the Corsair Accelerator Series 30GB. But not at $146 for the same size.

Image

While this is a SSD, the software from SanDisk makes it into a vary large, AND VERY FAST, cache for your standard hard drive.

This system has been around for a while, but now it's very inexpensive.

Pop over to SanDisk for more info.



I sure wish these companies would pay me for recommending their stuff! :x


REVIEWS;
hardocp.com - SanDisk ReadyCache 32GB SSD Review

tomshardware.com - SanDisk Intros 32GB ReadyCache Upgrade for Windows 7



A How To on YouTube
Image
User avatar
OldAirmail
Major
Major
 
Posts: 4814
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:06 pm
Location: Concrete, WA ICAO - 3W5

Re: The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE

Postby OldAirmail » Sun Nov 24, 2013 2:57 pm

For those that are doubtful about using Junction Link Magic, I found a payware program made by PC Magazine for $7.99;

WAM: Move Programs From One Drive to Another

I haven't tried it, but it does the same thing as Junction Link Magic, but is intended for people who want something very simple to use.

But in my opinion, Junction Link Magic IS simple and easy to use. Besides, it's free. Read about it again here. It's long winded because I wanted to reassure people about it's use. It only needs VERY simple precautions to be able to use it correctly. It's not rocket science.



With the price of SSDs getting lower and lower, it's make more sense to do what I've done. Buy a 240-260 GB SSD, transfer you OS to it, and use your old drive as the second disk (actually, I bought a 1 TB SATA III drive for $70, and use my old drive for backups).
User avatar
OldAirmail
Major
Major
 
Posts: 4814
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:06 pm
Location: Concrete, WA ICAO - 3W5

Re: The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE

Postby OldAirmail » Thu Dec 12, 2013 3:28 pm

If you read my opinions on REX Essentials (start here) you'll know that, although the cloud textures are the very best, the program, REX Essentials itself, will put you to sleep due to the LLOOONNNGGGG load time. I was rather unhappy with that part.


In desperation I started using OpusFSX Live Weather. It's very fast and accuate, and gives me exactly what I wanted out of FSX.

Using REX & OPUS FSX THIS is the quality of the clouds that I see when flying. You know thay you'll NEVER get this out of plane old FSX, and not even Prepar3d V2.

Image

Image



As time went by, I came to the (as yet unrealized) realization that the best way to work things out was to use REX to create weather themes according to time, location, and seasons.

REX will let you build cloud, sun, sky color, and water textures to suit your needs. So if you're flying in Bora Bora (AKA Pora Pora) you can setup the sun and clouds suitable for the south Pacific.

You can set up, and save, winter & summer weather for the Pacific northwest if that's one of your favorite flying areas.

And you better believe that the weather is going to require a different sun and sky color in Egypt than it will for humid Alabama in the summer.


In a perfect world, REX Essentials would take note of your time, location, and seasons before searching for the weather reports that cover your flight. Someday. Maybe.



But THAT is old news.

Today REX has new news!

REX Releases “REX4 Direct”

One item, REX Weather Direct, sounds like it was intended to mitigate the extremely long load time required by REX Essentials before you can even start to load the flight sim.

From the Aerosoft Sim News report;
"Our goal with REX Weather Direct was to make it so easy for the user, that they only had to start the program and click start to achieve an accurate weather experience within FSX or Prepar3D."

Lets face it. Most people simply want to fly, and are perfectly willinf to leave the entire weather thing up to someone else.

Image



The other parts of REX4 DIRECT Products sounds, to me, as if they've broken up REX Essentials into it component parts.

But in some ways those "parts" are more "feature" rich. For inastance;
"14 types of lightning: IC, CC and CG" and "
"Runways with light or heavy wear... your choice, over 32 to choose from, the highest definition textures with the most fidelity on the market! "
and "28 amazingly detailed taxiways developed from all types of concrete, asphalt and bitumen "

Other "features" are long standing features built into almost every program: "Check for updates feature built-in" (whoopee! talk about inovation ) :lol:



One "feature" that might be interesting is :"Environment sound effects. Jaw-dropping in/out cockpit precipitation and thunder sounds"

That could be interesting. Because thunder, in FSX, is totaly pathetic.



So go to their site and see if it'll do. I had to buy BOTH REX & OPUS FSX to get the sky that I wanted. Maybe REX Weather Direct will give to you for half the price.


Happy sky's and good flying.

Image
User avatar
OldAirmail
Major
Major
 
Posts: 4814
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:06 pm
Location: Concrete, WA ICAO - 3W5

Re: The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE

Postby logjam » Fri Dec 13, 2013 2:02 am

Old Airmail, I went through the same problems you did with FSX and FSX Gold. Trying to install to my new Win 8 system. I eventually got FSX running with ORbx and some nice fileds and 'planes. I was about to buy the whole ORBX global when my #$%@** PC whent toes up again. This being the 3rd total crash, I am sick of it and now I'm running FS9 with UTX Canada and USA with some excellent airports and some really good 'planes. If I could just get my old copy of the Cirrus S20 I got from Flight one working, I'll be happy. Touch wood, the PC is working still, but I refuse to upgrade to Win 8.1 and risk losing everything again.
User avatar
logjam
Major
Major
 
Posts: 1301
Joined: Tue Mar 26, 2002 3:10 am
Location: Lillooet, BC Canada

Re: The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE

Postby OldAirmail » Fri Dec 13, 2013 8:54 am

Thanks, logjam.

My FSX setup ran without any problems at all. UNTIL I tried an update that screwed up a key file on my computer.

Finding, and resolving, that problem just about drove me crazy (a short trip :D ).

Recently I tracked down another really hard to resolve Windows file problem. My computer had been working "ok". Not as fast as it used to, but ok. Now all those irritating delays are gone.

This is just a WAG, but I think that FSX is more likely to crash due to minor system, and hardware, errors.



As everyone knows. I've been looking for a replacement. X-Plane 10 is getting better, but unless they re-do the interface, I don't see it catching on. But they have such a dedicated enthusiast base that I don't see them doing that.

And lets face it, It took long enough to understand the FSX interface. I don't want to put that much effort into the X-Plane interface.

For instance. I've had X-Plane for well over a year (One and a half?). A few days ago I just found out how to change a setting that made all of the planes, even the 172, stop flying like acrobatic planes.



Prepar3d has it much better from a FSX users viewpoint. The interface and file structure, even though it looks different, is really almost the same. But Prepar3d V2 is far more demanding, hardware wise, than FSX.

Image

Unfortunately, at the moment, it's not really ready for distribution. There are just too many basic hardware compatibility problems.

There's no question that most of those problems will be resolved in the next update or two.



With all of the trouble that I've recently had, this may sound crazy - I think that FSX is becoming better looking & more enjoyable as time goes by.

The ground and sky, in general, looks more believable. The planes are great. And the software companies are still developing for it.


One way or the other, the future looks interesting.
User avatar
OldAirmail
Major
Major
 
Posts: 4814
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:06 pm
Location: Concrete, WA ICAO - 3W5

Re: The poor mans sim pit - SOFTWARE

Postby OldAirmail » Sun Dec 22, 2013 11:49 am

HAPPY Ramahanukwanzmas!

I don't want to upset everyone ( :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: ) so let me remind you that it's time for Ramahanukwanzmas sales.

Image



I just bought the 3 Orbx UK parts (England, Scotland, & Wales) on sale. Get them if you can, it really is great, some parts look like areal photos.

Image

But that picture isn't photo scenery!

For the most part, I don't really like photo scenery. But that's just because of the way that I like to fly, low & slow. If you like to fly high (above 4,000 or 5,000 feet) then photo scenery is great.




Another bit of the world that I bought was Orbx - FTX: Australia SP4 Download.

NO NOT BE CONFUSED BY THE SP4 IN THE TITLE!

*** THIS IS ALL 4 PARTS OF AUSTRALIA *** FOR - AUD$26.85 - USD$23.91 - GBP£14.64 - EUR€17,37 - CAD$25.41 - NZD$28.98 - JPY¥2,462.55


Individually with SALE prices;
Orbx - FTX: AU Blue Temperate South - USD$12.42
Orbx - FTX: AU Gold Subtropical East - USD$12.42
Orbx - FTX: AU Green Tropical North - USD$12.42
Orbx - FTX: AU YBAS Alice Springs Airport - USD$14.87

TOTAL = $52.13

Or $23.91, take your pick. :D

Image
User avatar
OldAirmail
Major
Major
 
Posts: 4814
Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2013 3:06 pm
Location: Concrete, WA ICAO - 3W5

PreviousNext

Return to Computer Games & Software

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 202 guests